Funding for four new multidisciplinary projects announced

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- In a celebration of composer Fryderyk Chopin's 200th birthday, "Chopin Bicentennial Concerts, Recording and Symposium" will take place July 6-10 at Indiana University Bloomington.

It is the first of four major multidisciplinary projects funded through the end of 2010 with seed money from the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs' Multidisciplinary Ventures and Seminars Fund. Other projects are "The Grand Energy Challenge," "Master Classes in the Humanities: The Art of Interpretation," and the "Tourism Studies Workshop."

"The collaborative, interdisciplinary nature of each of these activities draws IU faculty and students together across disciplinary and school boundaries into a shared exchange of ideas," said Michael Wade, associate vice provost for faculty and academic affairs. "Their value to the research and creative activity of the campus as a whole is reflected by the contributions of departments, centers and schools, as well as the vice provost's office to the funding of each project. I encourage all faculty and students to participate in these activities and join the conversation."

Chopin Bicentennial Concerts Recording and Symposium

The Chopin 200th birthday celebration will include a performance of the composer's Concerto in E Minor, Op. 11 and Concerto in F Minor, Op. 21 in "Quartett" format by pianist Edward Auer and the renowned Shanghai String Quartet. The performance will be free and open to the public.

Halina Goldberg, associate professor at the IU Jacobs School of Music, will publish the preparation of the musical score and parts for the performance as part of a scholarly series. The concertos will be recorded for release on the Culture/Demain Label. A panel will discuss "Chopin Concertos: Modern Performance Informed by Period Practices."

Project collaborators are Auer and Goldberg from the Jacobs School; Maria Bucur, the John W. Hill Chair of European History in the IU Department of History; and Bill Johnston, associate professor in the Department of Second Language Studies and the Department of Comparative Literature and director of Polish Studies Center at IU.

Additional funding and support comes from the New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Program, Office of the President, Office of the Vice President for Research, Office of the Vice Provost for Research, Edward Auer Piano Workshop and the Jacobs School of Music.

The Grand Energy Challenge

Beginning in the fall of 2010, a lecture series, workshops and pedagogic activities through the College of Arts and Sciences' Themester program will focus on how the future demand for energy can be met sustainably.

Besides IU experts addressing issues on wind energy technology, carbon sequestration, and finding and using coal, national and international guest speakers will take part including climate change scholar Jean Palutikof, director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility at Griffith University in Australia.

Local experts who are part of the collaborating group include Rebecca J. Barthelmie, professor, Atmospheric Science Program and Sustainability; Sara C. Pryor, professor and chair, Atmospheric Science Program; John Rupp, assistant director for research and section head for subsurface geology at Indiana Geological Survey; and Maria Mastalerz, adjunct professor, Department of Geological Sciences and a senior scientist at Indiana Geological Survey.

Additional funding and support comes from the William T. Patten Foundation, Center for Research in Environmental Sciences, Department of Geography, Department of Geology, Indiana Geological Survey, and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Master Classes in the Humanities: The Art of Interpretation

A year-long series in 2010-11 will take place with four master class presentations in which the "art of interpretation" will unfold through a "process of emulation, exercise, and innovation." Visiting scholars will critique and comment on works in progress by core faculty groups.

Distinguished scholars for the series tentatively include T.J. Clark, the George C. and Helen N. Pardee Chair and Professor of Art History, University of California at Berkeley; Carlo Ginzburg, the Franklin D. Murphy Professor of Italian Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles; Marina Warner, writer of fiction, criticism and history, as well as professor, Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex; and David Wellbery, the LeRoy T. and Margaret Deffenbaugh Carlson University Professor, University of Chicago, Department of Germanic Studies, Department of Comparative Literature, and the Committee on Social Thought.

IU collaborators include Dror Wahrman, the Ruth N. Halls Professor, Department of History and director of the Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies; and Michel Chaouli, associate professor, Department of Germanic Studies.

Additional funding comes from the College Arts & Humanities Institute and the Office of the Provost.

Tourism Studies Workshop

The Tourism Studies Workshop plans to create an integrated research community on the Bloomington campus and take measures to develop a Ph.D. minor program in tourism research. The workshop will take place on six occasions throughout the 2010-2011 academic year, with local, national, and international speakers will examining perceptions of tourism.

The Multidisciplinary Ventures and Seminars Fund, administered by the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, is designed to provide partial support for collaborative projects to encourage interdisciplinary exchange and intellectual growth into new and multidisciplinary areas of inquiry. Proposals are encouraged that draw together two or more disciplines in an innovative way, including those fostering the university goals of globalization and internationalization of research and creative activities.